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For nearly two decades, hundreds of students at Southern Adventist University have inspired positivity in long-term patients through thousands of bright, creative works completed during a simple art class.

Introduced by alum and adjunct instructor Dana Krause, ’80 and ’82, who began teaching in the School of Nursing in 1992, Creative Arts is a one-hour, elective nursing course offered during fall and winter semesters each school year. Enrolled students paint acrylic canvases with verses of scripture, nature scenes, and other inspirational themes, and the completed pieces are donated to nursing homes, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities in Chattanooga and surrounding communities. Bible verses often reflect the native languages of the artists who come from abroad to study at Southern.

Krause started the class in 2006 after brainstorming about ways to involve her students in lightening the hearts and lives of people who require advanced nursing and medical care for months or even years at a time.

“In a way, it’s a community service class,” she explains. “Art can help decrease pain by shifting a patient’s focus to a creative, interactive activity. Similar to forming new brain pathways, we are using positive reactions to increase serotonin while also reducing constant activity at pain sites.”  

Open to non-nursing majors as well, the course can include up to 20 students per semester. Most of the aspiring painters are nervous to try something new, so initial pieces often require several class periods to finish. Subsequent paintings take half the time.

“Art comes naturally to me and has been part of my life for a long time,” Krause adds. “It is where I find joy, as others do in cooking or sewing or singing. But a student in this class doesn’t have to excel at painting to achieve the curriculum’s goals; instead, the main objective is to explore a new form of expression that serves to alleviate others’ pain and bring a little peace into their lives.”

Paintings are initially hung in AdventHealth Hall, the campus building that houses the nursing program, before finding permanent places to be displayed. An estimated 2,000 completed pieces have been shared locally, and some from Krause’s very first class can still be found hanging on the fourth-floor walls of Memorial Hospital in downtown Chattanooga today. 

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